The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations

Heroes, humour and everyday hate

Professor Lucian Hudson, our Chair of Council at the Tavistock Institute, selected this month’s Currents (our monthly moodboard).

“Just a snapshot of things that have stimulated my thinking this month”, said Lucian.

“Seeing clearly where we can take action, when there is a daily torrent of information and often difficult news, isn’t easy. But some people help to spark inspiration".

See what's caught Lucian's attention, and tell us what's caught yours.

Currents #2: Heroes, humour and everyday hate This month's moodboard, with Lucian Hudson

What is actually going on in your boardroom?

Our professional development programme is for board members and senior leaders who want , not just .

Unlike most leadership programmes, this one works with what's actually happening in the room. Through real-time experiential learning with your cohort, you develop insight into group dynamics and the unconscious processes that shape board decisions.

"Almost like magic, I suddenly began to recognise and understand my own dynamics." Zeina Akl, programme participant, 2024

Led by Dr Eliat Aram and Dr Mannie Sher of the Tavistock Institute, this certificated programme runs across four modules from September 2026 to January 2027.

Early bird discount of £1,500 available until 10 July.

https://tavinstitute.org/professional-development/certificate-in-dynamics-board-level

Read about the strange, sometimes surreal duet of transference and countertransference, with Manfred Kets de Vries. His article was selected by Rachel Kelly for our new monthly moodboard Currents. See what else got Rachel thinking this month.

Currents #1 Feeling human This month's moodboard, with Rachel Kelly

This post is for leaders who want to know what we offer in these times of change.

"Winning the AI revolution will depend not just on the you deploy but also on how well you lead the using it" says Jon Clifton, CEO at Gallup, in the latest State of the Global Workplace Report.

So far, 95% of organisations have seen zero measurable impact from AI investments (MIT Project NANDA, 2025).

Why?

Because, adopting new tech is about human systems and readiness to change.

The Gallup report spotlights falling employee engagement - including amongst managers.

🔴 Employee engagement — the psychological attachment people feel to their work, their team and their employer — is key to readiness for change in organisations.

🔴 The sharpest decline in engagement is among managers and leaders, who also report significantly higher levels of stress, anger, loneliness and sadness than the people they lead (Gallup, 2026).

"The primary constraints for organisations are no longer model performance or tooling, but rather organisational readiness and implementation" (OpenAI enterprise report, 2025).

Focus on the human factors.

Find your grounded position with us.

Group dynamics on boards can cause chaos

You know when something weird is going on, that under-the-table feeling. Why is A deferring to B and why didn't C say that thing you'd briefed her to say?

Most board development doesn't touch issues of deference and dissent (who speaks, who stays quiet, and why), and anxiety in collective decision-making (how boards under pressure narrow rather than open up).

We designed the Certificate in Dynamics at Board Level for this.

Our approach is rooted in psychoanalytic and systems thinking. You won't just study group dynamics, you'll experience them, in real time, with your cohort.

Led by Dr Eliat Aram, CEO and Chartered Director, and Dr Mannie Sher.

"Almost like magic, I suddenly began to recognise and understand my own dynamics." Zeina Akl, 2024

"Real dynamics at board level in an experiential setting." Arjen Kuijper, HR Director and board member, 2024

Four modules across the year, beginning in July. The early bird saving is £1,500 for applications before 18 May.

Certificate in Dynamics at Board Level A certificated programme on effective board leadership: acquire insights into group dynamics, unconscious processes, and emotional intelligence.

As AI reshapes our workplaces and social worlds, everyone is talking about how to keep the human in the loop, how to protect human capacity and maintain trust and shared purpose.

We are not surprised that this is difficult. Tavistock researchers researched and consulted to industry during the mechanisations and turbulence of the post World War Two period, in the UK, India, Mexico, South Africa. We saw human systems falter in the face of new technology, in coalmines, cotton mills, banks and manufacturing plants.

The rich and exciting theoretical framework we called systems psychodynamics developed over seven decades to help organisations work with changes.

Systems psychodynamics as it is now addresses the interplay between psychological forces and systemic structures within organisations. Our Futures Lab draws on that heritage to enable you to imagine, practice and sustain high-performance human/AI integration within your organisation.

We've just launched two new collaborations founded on systems psychodynamics, dedicated to inquiry into Human-AI dynamics:

▶️ Dynamics in Human/AI teams: a 12-week consulting package with Elevate4 to build the capacity of work teams to think, relate and make decisions together.

▶️ The Room: a new leadership circle for senior executives navigating the business impact of AI

We'd be glad to hear from organisations ready to explore with us.

Creative Digital Futures Lab Research, consulting and professional development to help individuals and organisations navigate complexity and change.

Expert fundraiser needed to kickstart new campaign!

To expand our mission to help people and organisations work better together, we are looking for a fundraising consultant/partner to actively attract funds and diversify our income.

Deadline to submit proposals: Weds 25 March 2026
Questions to us? by Weds 11 March 2026
Responses to questions posted on our website: Weds 18 March 2026

We are looking for a professional fundraiser (person or team) with a proven track record of securing income from sources such as: trusts and foundations, corporate partnerships, major donors, individual giving campaigns, legacy giving and grant-making bodies.

Your fundraising experience should be directly relevant to the sectors we work in: consulting/social impact/research and training. We are a UK registered charity.

We want to work with a professional fundraiser who will actively research prospects, develop relationships and work up proposals with us (not simply provide advice or strategy documents). This is a ‘doer’ role.

Invitation to Tender posted on our website.

Expert fundraiser needed to kickstart new campaign To expand our mission to help people and organisations work better together

This new Tavistock workshop is called Leadership and Presence - it is all about discovering a more authentic presence and your natural authority as a leader.

What: Leadership and Presence workshop: find your natural authority
When: 23 & 24 July 2026
Where: London (in-person), UK

Acquiring authenticity takes time and practice - so we are delighted to offer you this space to explore leadership through embodied practice and experiential learning. Led by Rachel Kelly (pictured) in London.

Experiential learning is encoded differently in memory and becomes more accessible when under pressure, creating muscle memory and new neural pathways. We remember perhaps about 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, but 80-90% of what we do and experience.

Rachel was inspired to design this workshop through work with University of Utrecht alumni in the Netherlands and with alumni of 's Executive Master in Change.

The goal is to help you integrate your feelings, ideas and actions so that you can access genuine confidence and poise.

“What a special and valuable experience, to explore with all that we are. It was both inspiring and confronting. Looking forward to what will emerge from this.”
Saskia van Vliet - Coach, Consultant & Yoga practitioner, The Netherlands

Find out more via link in our comment

A little round-up of our training programmes: there's a new two day workshop on finding your natural authority

https://tavistockinstitute.createsend.com//t/r-e-tkulhrjy-l-l/

Love on Boards

Meet the leaders of our *Dynamics at Board Level* gold standard programme in 2026: Dr Mannie Sher and Dr Eliat Aram.

*Dynamics at Board Level* is a Tavistock Institute certificated programme on effective board leadership for senior leaders.

Working so closely with Mannie and Eliat will fire up your understanding of organisations and boards as living human systems.

They first came together around Tavistock systems psychodynamics consulting many years ago. They discovered a deep resonance in how they each approached leadership, authority, and the emotional life of institutions.

Since then, they've imagined, designed and led new professional development programmes, travelled the world as consultants together and thought and argued together in boardrooms, classrooms, and a lot of conversations.

Mannie writes: "What has sustained our collaboration is curiosity, trust, and we are both willing to think together in situations of complexity."

"We have often found that if one of us sees structure, the other senses feeling. Between us, we can get a fuller picture."

"Over time, this has become less a partnership of roles and more of a shared practice. We have spent a lot of time accompanying leaders and boards as they navigate uncertainty, conflict, and change."

A little about Eliat, in her words: "Issues of freedom, authority and learning in a complex, unknowable and surprising world are of daily concern, challenge and excitement to me. I have been fortunate to work across the globe and grapple with cultural and geographical boundaries, labouring to understand the local context where I work, immersing in its vicissitudes."

And a quote from Mannie's biography: "Growing up in South Africa under Apartheid, made me aware of the deep suffering caused by totalitarian regimes. My research, consultancy and publishing career, therefore, has been a lifelong mission to improve the lives, the working conditions and the well-being of people as individuals, in their social and work organisations and in their communities."

*Dynamics at Board Level* starts July 2026. Consists of four x 2 day modules. Early Bird discount of £1,000 for applications made before 18th May 2026.



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